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Monday may be measure of ‘Moral’ staying power

ASH
2:42 p.m. EDT August 1, 2014

Several thousand people gathered in Pack Square Park for Mountain Moral Monday protests August 5, 2013. A reprise Monday could be a measure of the movement’s staying power.
(Photo:
wsanders@citizen-times.com
)

Moral Monday is back for a second year. Whether it has long-term staying power, and whether it will achieve any of its goals, remains to be seen.

Moral Monday has been a fixture in and around the legislative building in Raleigh since the General Assembly convened in 2013. Charges of trespassing, failure to disperse and display of signs in violation of legislative rules were filed against 924 people in 2013. There is little chance any of them will serve jail time.

The protesters were motivated by a number of actions by the General Assembly in 2011-12, including repeal of the Racial Justice Act, abortion restrictions, tax code change, voting law changes and cuts to social programs. Their leader has been the Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP.

Asheville had only a single Moral Monday gathering last year, and it was a big one. Organizers expected a crowd of 2,000, but an estimated 10,000 filled Roger McGuire Green in Pack Square Park to hear Barber and others. Another gathering is scheduled for this coming Monday.

The turnout may give a fair indication of whether Moral Monday has staying power. Will it be a force with which politicians must reckon in 2014 and beyond? Or will it be a transient phenomenon relegated to a footnote in the state’s history?

Consider the relative fates of the Tea Party and the Occupy movement. The Tea Party shook the Republican Party to its roots in 2010 and 2012, though recent GOP primary results suggest it may be past its prime.

Occupy, by contrast, may have made its supporters feel good, but appears to have accomplished absolutely nothing. According to the movement’s champions, this is because local governments dispersed the protesters. Maybe, but there seems to be a more important reason.

The Tea Party flourished because its members had a clear idea of what they wanted – less government – and a clear path to that goal, whereas Occupy had an unfocused distaste for economic inequality. To have staying power, any movement must champion a program that resonates with the public. It’s not enough to be against things, you must be for things.

Locally, Moral Monday supporters concede that they haven’t changed anything, but they remain optimistic. “It hasn’t changed the outcomes of the General Assembly in the ways we wish it would, but has it changed anything?” said Elaine Lite, one of the original organizers of the People’s Assembly. “Absolutely. It has changed everything.”

If getting people together is a criterion, Moral Monday has been a success hereabouts. More than 50 sponsors are listed on the Mountain People’s Assembly page. They include the YWCA of Asheville, the Mountain Area Interfaith Forum, the Self-Help Credit Union and the Stephens-Lee Alumni Association.

Five NAACP branches have formed in Western North Carolina in the past year, carrying this organization’s activism into more rural areas.

Mary McGlauflin, of Maggie Valley, who helped found the NAACP chapter in Haywood County, sees greater activism. “It was hard for me to get one or two people to go with me to the rallies in Raleigh last summer,” she said. “In February, we had 20 people on the bus from Haywood County at 4 a.m.”

“I think … the movement …appeals to mountain people in more western counties. This idea that if your neighbor is struggling, you step in to help them, or you speak out.”

A big test for Moral Monday – and for the Tea Party, for that matter – will come at the polls in November. Then we should have an indication of which movements will endure and which will fade.